I have a desktop system running W7 Home Premium. My question is: for those not using a hardware firewall
do you use W7's firewall alone, or use it with another firewall Like Comodo (free)?
I'm asking because I have been running both; but in playing around and trying to speed up my boot
time, I uninstalled Comodo. I save 18 seconds on my boot time, but the W7 firewall alone fails the Gibson
"Leak test." Alone, and with the Comodo firewall, I also run MSSE.
Do any of you have any comments, suggestions, etc.?

My only comment is that I only pay attention to a hardware firewall and none to a software firewall unless I need to check an exception to make sure it has access. Also zero resources consumed at the system level and they make nice little portable hardware firewalls for business on the road as well.

Software firewalls that report outgoing are for people who want to keep tabs on updaters and other phone home applications--ones that just have to know.
It is not an effective means of malware protection other than the possibility that "stupid" malware may give itself away and let you know you've be transgressed at some point in the past.

The firewall in Win 7 has received much more positive press in these forums and elsewhere that it's predecesors. I use just the Win 7 firewall, my hardware firewall on my router and MSE for my real time security protection.

Joe:
Thanks. According to RoadRunner my modem does not have a hardware firewall in it. Also, this morning
I engaged in an online "chat" with a tech person from Time Warner/Road Runner.
He said "any router with an Ethernet port for incoming" would work" and that
after I picked one out I should contact that vendor's tech support for setting it up.

The one you picked should work for a wired connection. If you think you'll be using wireless I'd find one that supports the "N" standard (newest, fastest) instead of just "b" & "g". Otherwise, if you are sure you aren't going to use wireless then I'd disabled it in the router configuration. No reason to have it available so someone from the outside can try to connect.